‘Unfazed’: Freed hostages say they knew they had to project strength at Hamas handover
Female soldiers tell family and friends about periods with no food, cleaning toilets for terrorists, months without showers, seeing TV news of protests on their behalf
The four hostages released Saturday have told their families and friends that they determinedly showed Hamas, during the staged event the terror group had arranged for their handover, that they would not be humiliated, according to reports of their initial conversations.
The four young women — abducted IDF surveillance soldiers Karina Ariev, 20, Daniella Gilboa, 20, Naama Levy, 20, and Liri Albag, 19 — walked to the stage set up in a square in Gaza City calmly and confidently, and smiled and waved to the crowds of Hamas gunmen and Gazans.
The four had been given quasi-military uniforms to wear, and were required to walk across the square and stand on the stage with armed Hamas operatives at their side.
“We showed them on the stage that we were not fazed,” Kan TV news quoted one of them as telling family and friends. “It had no impact on us. We are stronger than them.”
Israel’s security chiefs, watching the handover from a command center in Israel, were extremely concerned that Hamas had planned a grandiose propaganda event that might get out of control.
According to a report on Channel 12 news on Saturday night, they concluded that the soldiers’ confident behavior “turned humiliation into victory.”
The four, who were taken hostage by Hamas-led terrorists at their base at Kibbutz Nahal Oz on October 7, 2023, have also told family and friends that they were held together with a fifth surveillance soldier, Agam Berger, until a few days before their release, and that it was very hard for them when they realized that Berger was not being freed with them.
Fifteen surveillance soldiers were killed at the base during the Gaza terrorists’ onslaught.
Kan reported the released hostages saying that Liri Albag was the leader of their group, and spoke to the terrorists on their behalf.
Naama Levy, a triathlete, was held for some time with Doron Streinbrecher, who was released on Sunday, and they exercised together, “for body and soul.”
Some of them learned Arabic while they were held hostage and Kan reported that, when they were in an IDF helicopter after their release and were told to sit down, they joked that they didn’t understand and that the soldiers should speak to them in Arabic.
One of the four was held in a tunnel alone for a long time, in the dark, in conditions in which it was hard to breathe.
They were moved around Gaza during their 477 days in captivity, including in Gaza City, they have said. Some of them met “very senior Hamas people.”
There were periods when there was no food, Channel 12 reported them saying. And there were times when some of them had to cook for terrorists, and clean toilets for them, but were denied food themselves.
When the IDF operated nearby, it was scary, they have said. But they helped and supported each other.
They heard the radio quite a lot in captivity, and were aware of their families’ and other Israelis’ struggles on their behalf, they have said. One of them heard her family wishing her happy birthday.
They also saw some TV, including coverage of protests on their behalf, and have said this gave them strength. They even joked among themselves about the pictures their families had chosen of them to use on posters urging their release, the TV reports said.
Some of them were held in the homes of Gaza civilians, Channel 12 reported. Some of them played with the children of their captors.
Some of them said their captors treated them “shockingly” and that they did not get proper medical treatment, including for injuries sustained when they were being abducted. More than one of them went for long periods without being able to shower and without sanitary conditions. And some of them were not allowed to hold hands or cry together.
Their captors continually referred to them derisively as “the soldiers,” they have said, according to Kan.
